Chapter 7
Ugh, damn it.
Penrix raced through the forest at a steady pace, humiliation simmering in the weight he felt on his back.
At first, he had decided to meet the Vampire Lord alone and, if things went badly, make a clean escape.
It had been a complete misjudgment.
Since Karpen had met the Vampire Lord and somehow come back alive, he’d assumed the whole thing wouldn’t amount to much.
“So that’s how it is.”
“Yes, Lord. I imagine that because you’d been asleep for so long before waking, it may be harder for you to restrain your impulses. It was a span of time so long I can hardly even imagine it!”
Penrix found the two beings perched on his back, chatting away so amicably, utterly infuriating.
He had volunteered to carry them, but now that a true foreigner — a bat, no less — was actually riding on his back, shame and rage churned together inside him.
The King of Wolves himself, reduced to nothing more than a means of transport.
Just wait. Bat bastards.
Whoosh—
“An impulse I can restrain well enough. In that sense, I’m not so different from humans.”
“Of course, if you’re too hungry, it becomes hard to endure! In those cases, you might even lose consciousness…”
“Wah!”
Because Penrix had suddenly picked up speed, Karvin, who was sitting on top of him, lurched violently and couldn’t finish his sentence.
“Penrix. Do not run so quickly.”
“…Yes, yes, Lord.”
Grrrrr.
Penrix was truly on the verge of exploding at the Vampire Lord, who spoke to him as though he were ordering around a dog, but he forced it down.
He knew it now, beyond any doubt.
No matter how many times he attacked, the result would always be the same.
A brutal defeat.
He had already charged at the Vampire Lord again and again until he had no strength left even to twitch a claw, and that had been the outcome every time.
Though he had been crushed by an overwhelming gap in one-on-one combat, Penrix had not been broken in spirit.
He was still the head and leader of his own race.
No matter how badly he had been beaten, he could not simply bow his head obediently to a foreign race.
The wolf never fights alone.
As he eased his pace, Penrix thought it over in silence.
At least, thanks to that strange bat’s taste for swords, they had successfully led him into their territory.
He should be there by now.
Penrix looked over the gradually brightening surroundings and gave a low inward laugh.
The legendary Vampire Lord.
There was no denying his strength.
But even so, he was still a bat.
So drunk on his own power that he had blundered into another race’s territory without the slightest preparation.
Even with Penrix offering submission, the whole thing was nothing but arrogant, shameless behavior.
However strong he may be, he cannot possibly face both our kind and the snakes at once.
That was Penrix’s ace in the hole.
The pact he had made with the king of the snakes, secured on the back of the raid on the Meyer family the previous night.
After sunrise, they had agreed to meet west of here, at the wolves’ stronghold.
And now, the warm morning sunlight was flooding the forest.
Even the pitiful conversation between the two beings riding on his back helped restore a little of Penrix’s pride.
It was a great deal different from what he had first expected, but as a monster, the Vampire Lord was barely even passing.
He seemed unable to properly understand his own abilities, and worse, he didn’t seem able to control his craving for blood.
Even the young vampire who seemed utterly infatuated with him was trying to gloss things over, but his panic was so obvious Penrix could feel it through his back.
So this was the right decision after all — to find him quickly.
Whoosh—
Penrix ran as fast as he could without shaking the two beings on his back.
Even freshly awakened, the fellow had displayed overwhelming strength through nothing but physical ability.
If he were given more time and somehow awakened some new power on top of that—
Whoosh, whoosh—
“Penrix. I told you not to run so fast.”
“S-sorry. I just wanted to present the offering as quickly as possible.”
He has to be dealt with before that happens.
Penrix’s legs kept quickening of their own accord.
*
As I thought, this isn’t a normal condition.
The more I listened to Karvin, the more certain I became.
On Penrix’s suggestion, we were heading to the wolves’ den before leaving the mountain range so I could pick up a sword.
During the trip, I asked Karvin many questions from the top of Penrix’s back about the nature and history of vampires.
Especially about the craving for blood.
Karvin’s answers were far from what I had expected.
Who would have thought that not every vampire was tormented by an uncontrollable urge to drink blood?
“W-well… there are training methods for that! Training meant to control vampires who can’t restrain themselves because their craving for blood is too strong! It’s usually something done when they’re young, but—ah!”
Karvin’s eyes darted around as he rambled on, then suddenly clapped a hand over his mouth, as if he’d said something he shouldn’t have.
“…Doesn’t that just mean the Lord is exceptionally pure-hearted?”
That reaction alone told me everything I needed to know.
The fact that I, as the Vampire Lord, had not only failed to resist the desire for blood in battle but actually lost control of myself was clearly not a common thing.
Hmm.
I looked out at the increasingly bright surroundings and thought it over.
Bluntly put, I was dangerous.
A novice knight holding an uncontrollable demonic sword.
I wasn’t sure whether the analogy was perfect, but maybe that was the best way to describe my condition.
He had a sharp blade capable of cutting down anything, yet one wrong move could mean being swallowed by the sword itself.
Wasn’t I the same?
If I couldn’t properly suppress the craving for blood, I’d lose my reason and run wild.
Just like earlier, when I had tried to seize the blood of Karvin, one of my own kind, without hesitation.
For now… for now, I need a sword.
I had assumed that since Karvin was also a vampire, he might know some way to help me, but that wasn’t the case.
In fact, it seemed that the other vampires besides me controlled their impulses much more easily.
From the way he spoke, it didn’t sound like he knew any separate method to explain.
It was a little disappointing, but for the time being, there was no good solution.
“Tsk.”
“My Lord! I’ll look for a way! I’m sure Lady Pia might know something! She’s the smartest and strongest sister among our clan…”
As I clicked my tongue, Karvin began to flail in panic and launch into a desperate explanation.
“We’re here.”
Penrix cut him off as if he’d been waiting for the opening.
Awuuuuu—!
At the same time, the howls of countless wolves greeted us from all around.
Just from what I could sense nearby, there were at least several hundred of them.
From those howls I could feel a mix of emotions.
Welcoming the return of their king, but also confusion and caution at the sight of the two of us riding so brazenly on his back.
“Clear the way, all of you. It’s the Vampire Lord.”
Awuuuuu—!
At Penrix’s words, the many wolves moved in perfect unison.
Gulp.
I heard Karvin swallow hard behind me.
Surrounded by hundreds of wolves, each one glinting its eyes and staring at us, it was hardly a comfortable or reassuring setting.
Thud—
“I’ve gathered the humans’ belongings inside here.”
Penrix stopped before a cave and dropped to one knee, clearly signaling for me to get down.
The wolves around him growled in displeasure at the sight, but when Penrix gave a low rumble of his own, they all fell silent.
“I’ll be waiting outside. Please look around at your leisure and take whatever you wish.”
Penrix was still speaking to me in the same obedient tone.
“Very well.”
Leaving Penrix behind, I stepped straight into the cave.
Even if the sword was a rotting one, I felt like having a blade at my waist would finally calm me down.
Ever since I had opened my eyes, things had been one bewildering, unfamiliar situation after another.
As soon as I woke, I’d seen blood and lost control of my body. Then I had fought Penrix.
And now I was in wolf territory.
He even bowed his head before me in front of his subordinates. I suppose I don’t need to worry.
To be honest, when Penrix had suggested that I enter his territory and take a weapon, I’d thought there must be some kind of trap.
And yet I’d agreed anyway, driven not only by confidence but also by the desperate urge to lay my hands on a sword as quickly as possible.
Maybe it was because I had beaten him into the ground so thoroughly.
For some reason, I felt absurdly certain that whatever happened, I wouldn’t lose to Penrix.
And if I was going to leave for the human world to meet Sylvia, I had the feeling — almost a certainty — that I needed a sword.
I trusted that instinct firmly, the instinct I had honed as a knight through all the lives I had saved.
“Lord! I’m coming with you!”
Listening to Karvin scrambling after me from behind, I narrowed my eyes.
Something had indeed been gathered in the darkness of the cave, just as Penrix said.
Swords, including the one I was looking for, along with all sorts of weapons and armor.
There really is one.
It was just as I took step after step toward the swords that I heard it.
Shrrrk—
“Hmm?”
“Ah!”
At the sound of something scraping across the cave floor, I stopped without meaning to.
Thanks to that, Karvin, who had been following close behind while on guard, bumped into me.
“S-sorry, Lord!”
Shrrrk—
“That sound…?”
“Sound…?”
Apparently Karvin couldn’t hear the chilling noise at all.
In truth, even I could only barely make it out.
A faint sound so subtle I would have missed it if I’d let my attention slip even a little.
Shrrrk—
And now it was coming from right nearby.
Right below me.
Crack!
Instinctively, I stamped down on the place where the sound was coming from.
Rather than the sensation of something rolling underfoot, it felt like I’d stepped on something alive, and the even more sinister sound that followed made my skin crawl.
Kieeek—!
A cry like something writhing in pain.
A snake…?
What I had just crushed underfoot was a small snake, its body writhing as it died in agony.
The moment I realized that, I understood what the sound from just a moment ago had been.
The rasp of a snake’s scales against the floor.
As blood leaked from the snake I’d crushed, leaving a damp feeling underfoot,
Hissss—
I turned my eyes forward at the unpleasant sound coming from ahead.
“T-this can’t be…!”
This time, it wasn’t the sound of a snake crawling along the floor.
It was similar, but not the same.
What stood there before me, along with that sickening sound, was a white snake flicking its tongue.
A snake far larger than the one I had just stepped on and killed.
The ugly sound tickling my ears was the noise of its tongue moving in and out.
“Banua!”
Karvin’s voice from behind was thick with shock.
The white snake’s scales glimmered faintly, illuminating the cave that had been so dark I couldn’t see an inch ahead.
“Banua?”
“I-I’m the king of the southern snakes! Why are you here…?”
Hissss—!
Before Karvin could finish, Banua tucked his tongue back in and sprayed something at us.
Poison.
Looks like they got us.
I wrapped my arms around Karvin behind me and dodged the poison Banua had sprayed.
I had suspected that Penrix was planning something.
It was strange, after all, that he’d come at us looking ready to kill and then changed his attitude so abruptly after losing once.
But his ensuing attitude of “absolute submission” had dulled my suspicions.
Especially after I actually saw weapons inside the cave.
Growl—
A wolf’s howl came from the entrance.
There was something oddly pleased in it.
That bastard…
Because I’d been so preoccupied with the sword, I’d let my guard down a little.
Still, now that the sword was here, it was also true that I’d been looking for someone to spar with.
“Since it’s come to this, come at me all at once.”
With a thin, bloodthirsty smile curling at the corner of my mouth, I spat a venomous challenge at Penrix’s face.
Awuuuu—!
And at that signal, the monster horde surged toward me.